Western cyclone. [volume] (Nicodemus, Kan.) 1886-1887, 1887-02-17
LITERARY WOMEN.
The Strange SuperstItiOns and Beliefs Some
OF Them Have.

The Strange SuperstItiOns and Beliefs Some
or Them Have.
From the ~ 7. Mail and Express.
cit is said that actresses have superstitions
and vagaries in more marked degree than
any other women" said an old ltterateur to a
Mail and Express writer. 'But that is a
fallacy which should be exploded it does
them a great injustice. Literary women
have more oddities than any other class. New
York is the home of a majority of women who
desire to live by their pen and in no other
city can they be studied to better advantage.
Many of them believe in theosophy, trans
migration of the soul into animals, pantheism,
Mohamnledanism, atheism, evolution and
many other isms that place them out of the pale
of Christianity. But they not orthodox
even in what they profess to believe and have
many queer ideas and notions is connection
with their religious faith. Now [ know a
young woman who at times is a charming
writer, who imagines that her soul several
hundred years ago inhabited the body Of a
great general. Her theory is that the soul
never goes to another world and becomes a
spirit, but merely leaves the casket or body
of one person at death to find home in an
other just born. By this means the immOr-
tally of the soul is explained. Her idea is
that at times, by some freak, the soul or life
principle in dog gets into the body of man
and produces monster. No man, she argues,
can ever become immortal until his soul has
been refined and purified by inhabiting for
several centuries the body of woman The
inconsistency Of such belief is apparent, but
no amount Of arguing can convince her that
nature works on a more original soul plan
than the one she believes in. This woman is
practical outside of this crotchet.
"People can be great and have peculiar be-
liefs. Gen. Stonewall Jackson thought that
eating black pepper gave him rheumatism in
his left leg. Another literary woman, who
perhaps is destined to make a stir within few
years, is an out-and-out atheist. Yet she
goes to church and believes that number thir-
teen is a bad number; that to turn back when
once started on journey is not good
luck, and that when the left ear
burns friend is talking about her. She
can begin with Aristotle and Plato and
by ingenious reasoning show that these worthy
ancient philosophers were simply beautiful
takers and did not believe what they
preached, She thinks Empedocles the wsest
man of the ancients, because he jumped into
the crater of Vesuvius to make his followers
think he had assembled to heaven. Madame
Blaratsky converted several to her belief in
theosophy and they still relate wonderful
things of that disciple of Gautama.
Zone woman who can turn ont three or
four bright articles per day, firmly believes
that she has already been i'll the nirvana state
for over thousand years and has just come
upon earth for brief period before going
back again. She asserts that Edwin
Arnold, the author of the Light of Asia,
IL seer and held spiritual communica-
ton with Gautama in order to get in
Bpraton to write the Great Remuneration.
This woman has children and they attend
Sunday school regularly. The father, how
ever is orthodox and thinks Gautama and his
nirvana humbug. Many female writers, es-
pecially those who drop into poetry, imagine
they receive spiritual inspiration from authors
who have been long dead. ! could mention
one whose name is frequently in the papers,
who firmly believes she receives material aid
from the Other world. Strange, too with this be-
lief she is not at all superstitiouS about signs or
omens. She has been sadly duped by several no.
torous mediums whom the press has exposed,
yet she has faith in the ability of certain per-
sons to trot ghost out at any moment when
the lights are turned down and the audience
are away from the stage. ! attribute many of
the eccentricities in female writers to the fact
that they try to keep up their physical ANNA
ton by the free use Of stimulants. A gentle
man had daughter who was writing a novel.
She grew paler and thinner every day. but
seemed to have a wonderful amount of ANNA
ton at times, especially about the time she sat
down to write. He was at loss to account
for it, as she took little exercise. One day his
wife confessed to him that the daughter was
using stimulates freely to assist inspiration.
She said the daughter had read that Omda,
who was almost skeleton, used stimulants to
get up steam to finish n novel. and why not
emulate that successful writer? The stimulant
rock l advise all women writers to avoid.
Have your isms, your superstitions, your
omens and your vagaries, but shun liquor in
spiration. The names of these women? Oh,
no, ! would betray confidence if | divulgH
their Names"